Motivational Carrots

Five days to go... until November and NaNoWriMo.

October is planning for the writing onslaught. If you are thinking about writing 50,000 words in a month check out the latest Spa Girls podcast where the girls have decided to have NaNo writing party. This could be your big inspiration/whip/ carrot.... (fill in motivator here.)

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have just launched their latest thesaurus and it’s been hotly anticipated. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is out. As usual they have are great launch giveaway promotion.

Amazon has been trying to nail trolls this week. Think of a giant sledgehammer... Anne R Allen has a great post on the latest machinations in the world of Zon. This is a read it and be warned post... if you read the comments... have tissues.

Meanwhile David Gaughran tireless and fearless defender of the writer has been closely following what is happening to writers who have been rank stripped by Amazon in their crack down. It looks like the trolls are fighting back and Amazon is stumbling around looking for them in all the wrong places.

This week all over Social Media there was a campaign to show how many people had been affected by sexual harassment. The #metoo campaign even touched publishing... that bastion of good manners and correct behaviour. Hair curling stuff!

As the holiday season approaches many authors will find themselves manning stands at book fairs. Here is a little post full of tips for the hand selling authors out there.

Hallmark loves the holiday season. Christmas cards... holiday movies on its television channel... book publishing.... Book Publishing? Yes. If you have a clean holiday themed romance or mystery Hallmark wants to talk to you!

In The Craft Section,

Opening scenes

Character profile questionnaire- Angela Ackerman

How I cut 33k from my MS- Bookmark

Idea to novel workshop- Janice Hardy- Bookmark

Illuminating dark contemporary fiction- Writer Unboxed

Formulaic story structure- K M Weiland – Bookmark

Fast draft writing for NaNoWriMo

In The Marketing Section,

How to build a media kit- Molly Greene

Fantastic ways to sell books in the holidays- Bookbub- Bookmark

How to make Perennial Bestsellers- Ryan Holiday- Joanna Penn podcast- Bookmark

Email marketing in 2018

David Gaughran looks at the two marketing systems of Amazon- Bookmark

Draft 2digital templates- Elizabeth S Craig

To Finish,

Resources and deals are always around at NaNoWriMo time.

If you haven’t checked out the NaNo Storybundle of writing craft books you should.

Jane Friedman has a chapter in a new book on Editing that looks interesting.

Judy Blume has joined the Master Class teaching website. If you write for kids this Master Class series could be just the motivator present you are looking for! I’m tempted... Are you?

Maureen

@craicer

In my monthly newsletter I round up the best of the bookmarked craft and marketing links as well as some other bits and pieces. When you subscribe you will also get a nifty book crammed full with marketing notes. Thanks for hitting the coffee button this week.

Pic: Flicker Creative Commons/ Jeremy Keith

Looking Ahead

This week the winners of the LIANZA’S (Librarian and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) were announced at lovely event in Wellington. I spoke to one of the judges at the event and we talked about the depth of books on offer this year. The judge said that they could have picked another 5 in each category, so I raised the issue that maybe they need a long list. After all The ManBooker has one. One of the important things about a long list is it raises the profile of up and coming authors. This is really important in a small country with a shrinking publishing market. Sales into libraries and schools make all the difference in our small publishing world. A good long list can become a first port of call for school book buyers. (here’s hoping they take it on board!)

"I was brave in my writing, in a way I wasn't in my life." -Judy Blume #LA14SCBWI pic.twitter.com/UgfCHFKyEt
— Samantha Berger (@BergerBooks) August 3, 2014

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators 2014 annual conference wound up in LA this week. Over 1300 kids lit people in one space...WOW. This conference is usually a sellout every year. Some great keynotes and panels were on offer. Fix your self a long drink and scroll down the conference blog where they had notes on all the events.

If you are feeling in need of a conference the ever popular WriteOnCon is back in a couple of weeks. This is a free online conference over two days for Kids Lit writers. It is worth dropping into... getting up early and attending.

This week the stoush between Hachette and Amazon hits the 4^th month and the online letter to Amazon from concerned writers hit 900 signatories.

Also in the news is the opening up of the Authors Guild (finally) to Indie writers. This has been loudly applauded... and the appointment of best selling Indie C J Lyon’s to the board has the blogosphere jumping with excitement. First up she called for ways to make the guild better. Joe Konrath produced a 12 point plan that was a masterpiece. Every writers organization should be taking a look at it. The discussion has been wide ranging and is still on going.

The LA Times has been talking ebook numbers...and the sometimes skewed reporting around them.

The Huffington Post has an article on how Barbara Freethy became a best seller...(Interesting post)

Eileen Goudge is a traditional best seller and she is looking at her first foray into self publishing because her publisher no longer felt she was a hot property... after 13 NYT best sellers...

In the Craft Section,

Should you hire an editor before querying

Editing – top ten tips

Crafting stronger characters

Boring opening lines and what to do about them

Why you should ignore most of the advice from your critiquegroup. (great post)

The keys to a great opening scene

Smooth transitions to keep your story moving.

In the Marketing Section,

Lessons from 2014 RWA –tips for marketing success – Jami Gold

Author digital marketing tools

Social Media Platform infographic (this is a printout post!)

Joanna Penn on using Wattpad

How to do Box Sets at Smashwords

6 tips to champion your story

To Finish,

Jane Friedman has an interesting guest post about an Appcalled Episode. It allows writers to post up chapters with animation or comic book styles and have reader interaction. Perfect place to play with characters etc and the whole thing is specifically designed for mobile reading... A sign post for the future.

maureen